Question

Which of the following statements best describes the role of women in islam ?

Answer 1

The experiences of Muslim women vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree and gives them a common identity that may serve to bridge the wide cultural, social, and economic differences between them.

Among the influences which have played an important role in defining the social, spiritual and cosmological status of women in the course of Islamic history are Islam's sacred text, the Qur'an; the Ḥadīths, which are traditions relating to the deeds and aphorisms of Islam's Prophet Muḥammad; ijmā', which is a consensus, expressed or tacit, on a question of law; qiyās, the principle by which the laws of the Qur'an and the Sunnah or Prophetic custom are applied to situations not explicitly covered by these two sources of legislation;and fatwas, non-binding published opinions or decisions regarding religious doctrine or points of law. Additional influences include pre-Islamic cultural traditions; secular laws, which are fully accepted in Islam so long as they do not directly contradict Islamic precepts; religious authorities, including government-controlled agencies such as the Indonesian Ulema Council and Turkey's Diyanet; and spiritual teachers, which are particularly prominent in Islamic mysticism or Sufism. Many of the latter – including perhaps most famously, Ibn al-'Arabī – have themselves produced texts that have elucidated the metaphysical symbolism of the feminine principle in Islam.